


in a dream, a thousand years ago

by bunivy



Series: the anti-soulmates series [2]
Category: Chilling Adventures of Sabrina (TV 2018)
Genre: "it's about the longing" i say with an italian hand, Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Anti-Soulmates, F/M, Soulmate-Identifying Marks
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-22
Updated: 2020-10-22
Packaged: 2021-03-09 00:21:12
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,242
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27145141
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bunivy/pseuds/bunivy
Summary: It’s a painful thing to be a songbird with no one to serenade, and maybe he knows that, too.(part of the anti-soulmates au; Nick and Sabrina meet in a bar)
Relationships: Nicholas Scratch/Sabrina Spellman
Series: the anti-soulmates series [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1981421
Comments: 14
Kudos: 47





	in a dream, a thousand years ago

**Author's Note:**

> I had thoughts of turning this into a series of little one-shots centered around them trying to sort out the whole 'not being destined for one another but wanting each other anyway' thing. I hope you guys enjoy it! This is set before the events of _heaven can't help me now_

_Where have I seen you before?_

_In a dream._

_A thousand years ago._

—orestes

* * *

Sabrina moves through the crowd and toward the bar for a post karaoke drink, adrenaline coursing through her. She feels so light on her feet, the love-song she picked out still a hum at the back of her mind, clinging there like honey.

She notices a man quietly watching her as she waits to order, and when he notices that _she’s_ noticed, he looks a little bashful.

“I’m sorry,” he apologizes as the bartender hands him his glass of amber-colored liquor. “I don’t mean to stare, I just…I thought you were really good up there.”

“Thank you,” Sabrina says, offering a small, pleasant smile. The bar is dark, shrouded in intimate lighting, but she doesn’t need the gaze of the sun to notice that he’s rather handsome. Hair as dark as night, curled at the edges. Bright eyes and a patient smile. It’s lopsided, but she’s never quite cared for perfection.

She pulls her gaze away when she realizes she’s been looking a little long, focusing instead on trying to track down one of the very busy bartenders so that she can get her drink and go find Roz, who she parted with somewhere near the bathroom.

“Is that what you do?” he asks, “Sing?”

“I wish,” Sabrina replies with a hint of a wistful tone. Once she had wanted to do just that but the thrill of mediocrity got the better of her and put her in a cubicle from nine to five. “It’s just a hobby. Reserved for half-drunk crowds and the occasional office birthday party.”

The stranger gives a little chuckle, and she finds herself smiling at the sound of it. “I hope they compensate you accordingly for those parties. I don’t know a single soul who enjoys being on the other end of a birthday song, but at least you’d make it bearable.”

Her cheeks grow warmer, stinging a bit as her smile spread a little too quickly. “No compensation as of yet, but I like to think I make it less awkward,” she replies in agreement. 

“I’m Nick Scratch, by the way,” he introduces with a curiosity in his eye that’s entirely too hard to miss. 

“Sabrina Spellman.”

He hesitates for a second before asking, “Can I buy you your drink?”

“Oh, uh.” She hesitates, too, eyes flicking back to the bar. It dawns on her that maybe this isn’t something she should be doing right now, and she thinks of Harvey, who’s sitting at home probably skimming through whatever late night shows are on as he waits for her return. She can’t even remember the last time they kissed each other goodnight, but they still wait for one another, though it's more of a habit than anything else now. “I, um, actually already found my soulmate,” she adds on a little clumsily.

“So have I,” Nick says, and Sabrina can’t help but notice he sounds just a tad bit rueful. 

“Oh,” Sabrina realizes. Where is the harm, then, if they are both spoken for? This city is dark and cold, and she yearns for a home like she had in Greendale. “Well, then, sure? It’s been a while since I’ve made a new friend around here.”

“Maybe you’ll even remember me when you’re big,” he says, looking at her briefly with a smile that tugs at the corners of his eyes before he turns to wave down the bartender.

“I doubt I’ll ever get big, but if I do, I’ll get you a front-row seat. How’s that sound?”

They sit like that for a while, bouncing easy conversation back and forth until Sabrina’s losing track of time, her drink nearing empty. So far, she’s learned that Nick is a writer, and he’s learned that she does marketing for a small company a couple of blocks away.

At some point, someone comes up behind her, slides their hands on her shoulder and she startles a little before she realizes it’s only Roz, finally having gotten to the front of the very long line at the bathroom.

“There’s a separate party happening in there,” Roz explains. “I got stuck braiding some girl’s hair. She was incredibly drunk but an absolute sweetheart.”

“The girl’s bathroom always has a way of connecting people,” Sabrina says, turning on her stool enough to meet Roz face to face. Her friend slides in beside her, calls a drink out to the bartender, and then finally seems to notice Nick. 

“Oh,” Roz gasps lightly, realizing she has just stepped directly in between them, “Sorry, did I interrupt?” 

Sabrina shakes her head and cheekily says, “No. This is Nick. He thinks I’m bearable.”

“Clearly he hasn’t known you long enough then, Brina,” Roz replies, offering her a wink, and even though she’s being incredibly polite, Sabrina can tell that Roz’s ‘protective best friend’ mode has buzzed on, shining full force. It’s understandable. Two girls out bar-hopping alone is bound to attract creeps, so no matter how tipsy they end up getting, they always keep an eye on one another. It’s the city, after all. “You know, Sabrina has a—”

“A soulmate,” Sabrina finishes for her with a nod. “So does he. We were just talking over a drink.”

“Right,” Nick says, the hint of a smile. He extends a hand out to Roz, who shakes it hesitantly. “Nice to meet you, uh…”

“Roz Walker—Sabrina’s best friend,” she answers politely but with a bit of an edge, as though his charming smile isn’t enough to win her over. Sabrina knows it’s only because she’s looking out for her. And for Harvey—her other best friend. Roz tosses back the shot of tequila a moment after the bartender drops it off, winces lightly at the burn of it, and then takes Sabrina by the arm. “They’re playing our song—we need to dance.”

“How come it seems like every song is our song?” Sabrina asks as she hops off the stool and slips her arm around Roz.

“Because,” Roz says in place of an explanation. “That’s how it is. Hurry up, we’re missing it.”

“Okay, okay,” Sabrina laughs before she waves back at Nick, Roz already hauling her away. “Bye! It was nice to meet you!”

He smiles and raises a hand in farewell.

Roz is giggling, the tequila shot—and the one she had before they went up for karaoke—drawing her under its hazy umbrella as she and Sabrina spin each other around the dance floor, and it isn’t long before Sabrina is forgetting about the dark haired boy for the remainder of the evening. Instead, she wonders how long it’s been since Harvey’s asked her for a song. A year? Two? 

Sadness trickles over her like rain when she realizes she can’t remember. 

A songbird with no one to serenade. She starts to understand why so many little, lonely birds find solace in their own reflection.

* * *

It’s a week later when Sabrina shows up at the bar again. There’s a dusting of silver along the edges of her eyes, glints of stardust scattered like the milky way, and the little black dress she has on fits her like a glove. Normally, one dresses for an occasion. A night out. A dinner. But Sabrina has been wearing her outfit since the second she rolled out of bed that morning, in dire need of a cheer up.

The truth is, she and Harvey argued—bad—the night before. Classic, over the shabby kitchen island, one-way match, because he hadn’t even tried to argue back. Harvey always says things like: _Okay, Sabrina. Sure, Sabrina. Whatever you want, Sabrina._ And then, in the end, Sabrina always feels selfish, because she wants so much, and Harvey seemingly wants nothing at all. 

The music inside the bar hits her the way she assumes a wave of saltwater would if she ever got the chance to see the ocean.

Roz is sick with a stomach bug she picked up from work, so Sabrina has decided to run off on her own because if she has to spend one more second in that stuffy apartment listening to car alarm after car alarm go off in the streets below, she thinks she might lose her mind and never find it again.

Before she puts in her spot at the karaoke stage, Sabrina makes a beeline for the bar and tells the bartender, “Something strong. Whatever,” and he nods before sauntering off, appropriately reading her mood.

“Spellman,” a somewhat familiar voice says, and she looks over, has to squint through the poorly lit interior to see, and there he is. Nick, slouched over a drink of his own, calling her by her surname, something she isn’t used to but finds she likes.

She’s only slightly startled to see him there. This is where they met the first time, after all. It’s not a shock he’d be here. “Nicholas!”

“I thought I told you my name was Nick?” he asks, poking fun. 

Sabrina cheekily asks, “And isn’t that short for Nicholas?”

“Yes, but generally, the only time I hear that is when I’m in trouble.” When the bartender returns, Nick tells him to add her drink onto his tab before she realizes what’s happening and can stop him. As she glances at him, he justifies it by saying, “You look like you could use it.”

“How can you tell?” Sabrina asks, climbing up onto the stool beside him. 

Nick gives her silverly lock a gentle tug. “You’re not looking so bright, moonlight.”

“I had a bad day at work,” Sabrina lies. She hardly knows Nick, and she thinks that if even she wanted to unload all of her soulmate problems onto him, it probably isn’t something he wants to hear. 

“Had to sing at a birthday party?” Nick jokes.

“Something like that,” Sabrina replies with a gentle laugh, even though she would have preferred that over what actually happened. Her drink arrives, and she’s a little too eager, reaching for it before the bartender even sets it down, shoving the little complimentary napkin back at him like it’s a waste. Seconds later, the glass hits the table, empty, and Sabrina wipes her lip. “God, I needed that.”

“Damn,” Nick observes, and then he finishes off his drink, too, probably to make her feel a little bit better about inhaling hers. He holds up two fingers to the bartender and he nods back in a silent exchange. Before long, two new drinks are in front of them. Sabrina takes her time with the second.

“I want so much,” Sabrina whispers pitifully into the glass, more to herself than anything.

“I’ll get you another,” Nick tells her, “But I think you might want to slow down—speaking from personal experience, it’s better that way.”

“No.” Sabrina shakes her head. It isn’t about a drink. It isn’t about one thing at all. “I _want_ so much.”

Nick nods slowly like he’s starting to understand. Quietly, he says, “Me too,” but doesn’t elaborate, doesn’t need to either. She gets it. 

They sit there for some time, wallowing separately in silence, before she sits up and decides she’s going to dance, going to get rid of her bad mood one way or another. “Do you want to dance with me?” she asks Nick, who looks up at her like he doesn’t quite understand. “Dance,” she repeats, holding back a smile. “That thing you do with your body? Usually to music?”

“I’m starting to get what your friend Roz meant,” Nick teases and Sabrina rolls her eyes playfully. “I don’t usually—”

“And I don’t usually ask strangers to dance with me,” she cuts in. “So now is your only chance.”

“Fine,” he relents, “Lead the way.”

And she does, slipping her elbow through his—the way she does with Roz—as they head out to the floor. Her feet ache from the heels she’s been in all day, but she doesn’t care as she spins out before him, giggling, a little breathless from it all. He sets his hands appropriately at her waist, and they take up a rhythm that suits them both.

Soon, the music slows to a love song, a melody of soft notes and honeyed words, washing over the crowd of bar-goers as someone else takes their spin on the mic. 

“Sing,” Nick tells her, seeing the ache that she hasn’t even yet noticed herself. It’s a painful thing to be a songbird with no one to serenade, and maybe he knows that, too.

She lets her head fall back as he moves her gently, lets the words spill out of her, eyes fluttering shut. For a moment, Sabrina is entirely lost.

When she opens them a little later, she sees Nick, full of wonder and smiling at her. 

The thing about Nick, she’s learning, is that when he smiles, it’s with his entire face. It’s like falling into Sweetwater River with your back turned and seeing the sun through the kaleidoscope surface of the water, knowing it can’t hurt you like that. It’s like hitting every green light on the way home after a long day. Like hearing all of your favorite songs on the radio, one right after the other. Like forcing yourself back to sleep and successfully finding the dream you hadn’t wanted to wake up from in the first place.

It’s like so many things Sabrina has forgotten.

**Author's Note:**

> I really am grateful for any sort of feedback, so if you want to, consider dropping a comment to let me know what you thought! :)
> 
> Thank you!


End file.
